Saturday, 15 August 2015

Squirrel and Ecureuil

Undergoing re-assembly and NZ certification at Pacific Aircraft Services in Christchurch are two AS 350BA helicopters.

The photo taken on 29-07-2015 shows ZK-HMG2 (c/n 2647) still wearing the colour scheme it wore as N355TV with US Helicopter Inc of Marshville, North Carolina and as operated by "Sky 5 News".

This one began life in 1992 as TG-JBG with Luis Enriquez in Guatemala and was sold to the States in 2005. It became ZK-HMG on 07-07-2015 for Prosser Heli Ag Ltd of Fairlie where it will join the Robinson R44 Raven II ZK-HNN3.

In the background you can see the AS 350BA F-GDXR (c/n 1912) awaiting work to begin on turning it into ZK-HOQ3.

It was registered to Christchurch Helicopters 2001 Ltd on 06-08-2015.

This served all its earlier life with Ste Helicap Isles-Les Meldeusies, initially as F-OGNB from 16-06-1986 followed by F-GDXR from later that same year.